The present invention relates to a shift lever apparatus, and more particularly, to a shift lever apparatus provided in a vehicle with an automatic transmission.
A shift lever apparatus has been disclosed in the Japanese Patent Application Laid Open No. 60-135352. In this shift lever apparatus, when a positioning pin arranged on a shift lever is positioned at a parking position in a positioning plate, a notch of a bell-crank rotatably secured on the positioning plate engages with a positioning pin so as to restrict the movement of the positioning pin. The bell-crank is connected by a transmission member such as a cable to a key rotor of a cylinder lock which has the function of releasing a locked steering.
In the above-described shift lever apparatus, however, in a steering-lock state in which the engine key is removed from the key rotor, if a user tries to move the positioning pin positioned at the parking position downwards or toward the other positions while pressing a knob button provided in the shift lever, the force to move the positioning pin downwards is transmitted to the bell-crank to rotate the bell-crank and thus the force is also transmitted to the cable. In this situation, the cable may be stretched too tightly, whereby the tension in the cable may cause damage to the cable or the other transmission members connecting the bell-crank to the cylinder lock. Further, if the cable is lengthened, there is a concern that a lock in the cylinder lock may be released.